The royal palm Tom was too weak to stand this morning. We brought him in the house, put him on a towel on top of a heating pad, but he kept looking worse. We loved on him a ton.
I don’t think he was drinking any of the medicated water. The hen might be doing slightly better. A bit more active and interested in food, though not enough to sustain herself. We force fed him some of the medicated water this morning and then a few hours later.
Desperate, I read that cayenne pepper, garlic, grapefruit seed extract, and metronizdazole can treat black head. Our turkeys interact with the ducks and chickens on our property, so that really makes the number of illness possibilities rise. It’s also possible they have MG from mingling too close to two sick chickens we keep away from the rest of the birds. They could also have eaten a screw from the construction of our house nearby.
I read cayenne and grapefruit seed extract can treat protazoa and worm issues supposedly. Not knowing what is wrong with our birds, I gave him cayenne mixed with water and also some gatorade. I also gave some to the sick hen. He was declining so fast, and I wanted to try something. I think it was too late. About a half hour later, I heard a struggle and ran over to find him seizing or just scrambling in place. I called my mom over and we held him together as the life left his body. I am praying we don’t lose all our birds. We plan to have a necropsy done via vet or ourselves. I will be beside myself if we lose more birds. We love them so much and planned to breed Royal Palms.